Valour and Victory (2 page)

He also learned
to respect and trust Captain Robain Hallam and Baron Philip Ross, a
new experience for a young prince brought up in the intrigue-filled
circles at the Murdoch Court.

Elliot, James
Cocteau, Robain Hallam, a recovered Derek Merriman and Philip Ross
left Stewarton to return south to the Kingdom of Murdoch when it
was realised that war was imminent.

Elliot has been
entrusted with the job of persuading the Dukes of Murdoch,
especially Duke William Duchesne, whose lands are likely be the
first to be attacked, that the threat of the Dglai is real. He
brings with him an offer of help from Susyc Julia.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
, Elliot has arrived in the
Kingdom of Murdoch with Robain and James.

Isobel
Cocteau
- (Margravessa of the Ducal House of Cocteau and the
betrothed of Prince Elliot). Isobel is the niece of Duke Pierre
Cocteau.

On the death of
Elliot’s intended, Margravessa Beth Baker in a carriage accident
she was chosen by the Conclave of Murdoch to be Prince-Heir
Elliot’s replacement bride. She was formally betrothed to him in
the Chapel Royal the day before Elliot left for his Grand Tour. Her
elder brother James is Elliot’s boyhood friend and accompanied
Elliot to the north.

She was
educated at the Mother House of the Order of Grey Nuns. Though
quiet and unassuming she is therefore well-educated and is well
aware of what is expected of her as future consort. The marriage is
scheduled for the summer of AL 608.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
, Isobel is waiting for
Elliot’s return at the Duke of Cocteau’s favourite manor house to
the south of the Kingdom of Murdoch.

Robain
Hallam
- (Captain of the Garda). In AL 607 he was a member of
the permanent training staff at the Garda Academie.

He originated
from the Island of Hallam in the Great Eastern Sea. In AL 595,
slavers attacked the island. His father and elder siblings were
killed leaving him to bring up younger brothers Liam and Ansell.
His mother and young sister were taken by the slavers for sale in
the southern continent.

Robain joined
the Garda and seemed set on a long and distinguished career. While
training the officer trainees he met and fell in love with Hilla
Talansdochter.

When Kellen
Derek Merriman was injured protecting Elliot from the assassins
sent by his uncle, Robain was ordered to take his place as
bodyguard and found that instead of hating Elliot and all he stood
for, he was beginning to like the young man.

Robain played a
major part in the finding of the computer print-outs at Stewarton.
After the decision that Elliot should return home and because Baron
Philip Ross and a recovered Kellen Derek Merriman were going with
the team to hunt for the power-core, Robain volunteered to go with
Elliot and James to Murdoch and promised Baron Philip Ross that he
would protect the young prince.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
, Robain has arrived in the
Kingdom of Murdoch with Elliot and his friend James.

Hilla
Talansdochter
- (eldest triplet, the youngest children of
Talan, the Innkeeper of the Little Rover Inn at Dunetown in Argyll
and his wife Zanda). By the beginning of AL 607 Hilla had been
accepted by the Garda and had begun her officer training at
Settlement. Towards the middle of the year she fell in love with
Robain Hallam and was upset when he left on special assignment.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
she and her friends, Shona,
Dolvin and the rest of the Officer Trainees are at Settlement
waiting for the orders that will send them south to the war. She is
wondering what has happened to Robain because she hasn’t heard from
him for months.

Rilla
Talansdochter
- (middle triplet, the youngest children of
Talan, the Innkeeper of the Little Rover Inn at Dunetown in Argyll
and his wife Zanda). In AL 607, a Lind, Zawlei, came to her at her
parent’s inn; the two of them life-bonded and Zawlei took the
seventeen year old Rilla away to begin their training as a Vada
Cadet. At Vada she met and became friends with Shona and her Lind
Danei.

Although she
began her training at an older age than usual, she, with Zawlei’s
help, persevered and after some months became what was known as a
‘Third Stripe’ Cadet with the rest of the seventeen year olds in
their penultimate year of training. When the muster was called, she
and Zawlei, with the rest of the Cadets travelled east towards
Settlement where the Vada Ryzcks were mustering.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
she and Zawlei are camped
with the rest of the Vada in the forest above the Battle Plains at
Settlement waiting for the orders that will send them south to the
war.

Zilla
Talansdochter
- (youngest triplet, the youngest children of
Talan, the Innkeeper of the Little Rover Inn at Dunetown in Argyll
and his wife Zanda). During AL 607, Zilla was helping her parents
run the inn. Always the quietest of the triplets, she is beginning
to assert herself.

She fell in
love with Elliot when the party stayed at the inn and like Elliot,
is unable to put her feelings behind her. She has no idea who
Elliot really is and knows him as Walter, a younger son of a minor
noble house.

Her brother
Zak, a member of the Militia went to the war with the Dunetown
battalion when the muster was called.

At the
beginning of
Valour and Victory
Zilla is making plans to
follow Zak east to see what she can do to help in the war all but
the most ignorant know is coming.

Tala
Talansdochter
- (middle child of Talan, the Innkeeper of the
Little Rover Inn at Dunetown in Argyll and his wife Zanda). By AL
607 she was a Journeywoman in the Technicians Guild and lived in
Stewarton with elder sister Zala, married to Merchant Matt
Urquhart.

She was a part
of the group that found the print-outs and volunteered to go south
with Danal and the rest of the team to find the power-core. Danal
was not keen to include her, believing she would be of more use
helping the Guildmaster decipher the print-outs but Tala
successfully argued her case.

‘
And do you
think you will understand these instructions when you get
them?’
she demanded
. ‘Do you have the technical expertise
and know how? Will you be able to use the tools? Can you tell the
difference between a magnetic screwdriver and another? I can. You
need someone with the skills to understand the instructions and to
implement them, to adapt them to changing circumstances if need
be.’

Danal had bowed
to the inevitable and agreed that she should go with them to the
southern continent.

As
Valour
and Victory
begins she and Inalei, an Avuzdel Lind who has
appointed himself her mount for the duration of their mission are
about to land in a secluded inlet on the coast of the Duchy of
Graham with the other six team members.

It is a race
against time; the Dglai must be stopped before they destroy Planet
Wolf.

* * * * *

Kalavdr the
Largan, Hereditary Leader of the Larg, watched, a satisfied
expression on his hairy face as yet another kohort of warriors
arrived at the muster rock.

Anticipatory
saliva began to drool from his mouth. He licked his lips.

Soon the puny
humans of Murdoch would be dead and the continent belong to the
Larg once more. Moreover, with the help of his allies, the Dglai,
the entire planet would soon be under his paw.

All would serve
him.

All would bow
down before him.

All would fear
him.

He was the
Instrument of the Destiny of the Larg.

* * * * *

Zilla

Zilla
Talansdochter thought about the impeding war with an increasing
feeling of uselessness. Her eldest triplet sister Hilla would be in
the thick of it and now Rilla and her Lind Zawlei were on their way
to the war in the southern continent too.

How can I just
sit here and do nothing?

Zilla knew that
she would be of little use where actual fighting was concerned. She
had attended arms practice classes when she had been younger but
had never been much good at it. Hilla, her ambition to join the
Garda when she was old enough had been excellent; as befitted one
with a military career before her. Rilla had been almost as good
but her passion had been for horses and she had lacked the
necessary motivation. Hilla
had
attended the extra classes,
Rilla, offered a place, had refused, preferring to ride her pony
Lightfoot. Zilla had stopped attending as soon as she possibly
could.

So what can I
do?

Her mother
seemed to think that her youngest daughter should be content to
remain at the inn. There was certainly enough to do. With Zak
leaving with the Militia together with quite half of the servants,
those remaining (and Zilla), found themselves running from one task
to another. The inn was busy, filled each night with wagon
teamsters taking goods east for the war effort, the merchant houses
well aware that here were profits to be made. Increasingly, Zilla
found herself helping the remaining stable hands, helped by Maura,
one of the room-maids who came from farming stock and who, if truth
be told, preferred to work outside.

As Zilla mucked
out the stalls the morning after Rilla and Zawlei’s visit she was
thinking hard and making plans. By the time she had finished, her
plan was complete. That night, alone in the room she had once
shared with Hilla and Rilla, she packed a holdall with a couple of
changes of clothes. It was still dark-night when she got up from
her bed and dressed, trying to keep her movements as silent as she
could. She picked up the holdall and crept out of the room,
avoiding the creaking floorboard (her parent’s bedroom was right
underneath) and tip-toed down the stairs.

She made her
silent way to the kitchens, deserted at this time of night - the
tweeny didn’t get up until first light when she readied the stoves
for breakfast. When she opened the kitchen door she was shocked to
find she wasn’t alone. Maura was there, dressed like Zilla in tunic
and trews and she was placing loaves and cold meats in a food bag.
Like Zilla, Maura had a holdall over her shoulders.

Maura looked up
with a guilty start but relaxed when she saw whom it was. Zilla
placed a finger to her lips and with a grin took another two loaves
from the table and shoved them into another food bag. Then she went
to the larder and brought over some kura cheese. Maura added some
ripe redfruit to both bags.

“Water?” asked
Zilla.

“Over there,”
Maura mouthed her answer, pointing.

“Four?”

“I had a
feeling you might be joining me,” whispered Maura.

“Shush,”
cautioned Zilla as the two of them picked up the bags, collected
two bottles each and made for the door that led to the
inn-yard.

Once they had
reached the comparative safety of the stables Zilla turned to
Maura.

“I saw you
readying Lightfoot’s tack earlier,” Maura answered Zilla’s unspoken
question. “Thought you’d be leaving tonight. I want to go too.”

“Why?”

“Joh’s gone
with the Militia.” Joh was a friend of Zilla’s brother Zak and
Maura had been ‘walking out’ with him for some time. “They’ll be
needing nurses.”

“My thought
exactly,” said Zilla, accepting Maura’s right to go. “Horse?”

“I’m taking
Blunder. Oh I know he’s old and not very fast but he’ll get me
there all right.” Blunder was the inn-pony, smaller than Lightfoot
and used by the inn to cart necessities to and from market. He was
also the pony the triplets had learned to ride on. “His saddle and
bridle were in the tack-room. I cleaned them earlier.”

Zilla nodded,
“let’s get them saddled up and be off.” She squirmed out of her
holdall, placing it on the ground then added the food-bag on to the
top.

“You get the
grooming stuff and shove it in where you can,” said Maura, handing
over her own bags.

“Feed?”

“Already done,
we can tie them to the saddle clinches. It’ll not be enough to get
us to Settlement but I’ve got some coin, enough I hope.”

“Me too.
Cleaned out my purse, Rilla’s too, knew she wouldn’t mind. She left
it behind when she went to Vada last year.”

It didn’t take
the girls long to tack up the two ponies who were most surprised.
They led them out of the stables and into the yard. Their hooves
clipped on the cobbles and Zilla held her breath. Would someone
hear them and come to investigate? Zilla decided not to take any
chances and mounted Lightfoot at once. He was skittish but the last
year had made of Zilla a competent horsewoman and she managed with
little trouble. Blunder stood like a rock while Maura mounted like
the well-mannered little pony he was, there was little that
unsettled him.

“Let’s go,”
commanded Zilla and set her heels to Lightfoot’s side. He bounded
forward, his hooves clattering on the cobbles. Blunder followed,
his short legs making a rapid clickety-clack noise.

As the two
broke into a canter, the girls heard shouts coming from behind them
but they paid no heed.

Eight days
later they arrived in the woods above Settlement.

* * * * *

The Convent

The Abbess of
the Mother House of the Order of Grey Nuns was sitting at her desk
making her way through some much needed routine paperwork.